Weird issues. Please help shed light

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by cinsolidarity, Nov 1, 2019.

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  1. cinsolidarity

    cinsolidarity Junior Member

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    I'll try to keep this brief as possible.
    Last Saturday night is when my red warning triangle and Engine lights came on.

    I purchased my car a year ago at 150k miles with a worn down battery. A year later I'm at 200k miles (from doing rideshare) and having swapped out a few cells.

    For a week prior, I had a tire pressure light blinking for 60 seconds before staying on despite having filled tires properly. This apparently means there is an issue with the tire pressure sensor system itself. Maybe the computer.

    Took my car to my mechanic who scanned it and told me:
    I need to recondition my battery again ($350)
    I have an issue with the computer system ($450)
    Something else minor for $80, I can't recall

    After the 5 minutes it took my mechanic to scan my car, all 3 previous lights that were on: red warning triangle, engine light, and tire pressure light, all went off, and suddenly my ABS, VSC, circle exclamation light, and BRAKE lights came on. My mechanic's assistant told me my hybrid battery appears to longer be taking any charge. I told him I'd be back after doing more research and drove home. My hybrid battery was charging as I drove home so that was inaccurate.

    Then took my car to another mechanic who then told me I needed a new ABS Actuator ($3,500 new) and said there were no other codes or issues they could see aside from the abs actuator/brake system. He said my brake system might not work if I drove home from his shop. It worked fine and still does though.

    Then took my car to AutoZone twice to get scanned. First time, the system wigged out and all lights in my dash were flashing and yielded no codes. The second time, the codes were:

    P0A1D - Hybrid Powertrain Control Module
    U0100 - Lost Communication With ECM/PCM "A"
    U0111 - Lost Communication With Battery Energy Control Module "A"

    My car is still driving and braking just fine for the time being, despite all I've been told and with the brake lights being on.

    Other minor details:
    I ran over a flat cart on wheels, and might've done minor damage to something on the front underside of my car. I pulled over and pulled it out from under my car. It came out relatively easily so likely didn't do too much damage to anything but maybe it did. I'm also getting an occasional mild static shock when I open my door, implying some electrical leakage somewhere.

    Anyone think they might know whats actually be going on here?
    Do you feel there is a possibility of a sudden brake failure?
    Will use of my parking brake save me, if so?
    What do you suggest I do at this point?

    Any potential insight is much appreciated.
    Thank you so much.
     
    #1 cinsolidarity, Nov 1, 2019
    Last edited: Nov 1, 2019
  2. JC91006

    JC91006 Senior Member

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    No more uber for me
     
    #2 JC91006, Nov 1, 2019
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  3. Raytheeagle

    Raytheeagle Senior Member

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    You’d take your chances in a 500k mile taxi instead :whistle:?
     
    #3 Raytheeagle, Nov 1, 2019
    Last edited: Nov 1, 2019
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  4. JC91006

    JC91006 Senior Member

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    I don't know which would be better, can't explain it.

    it's like a riddle.

    hotel charges 3 guests $10 for each night. guests pay $30 and then hotel realize it's a mistake and it's only $10 for all 3 guests. So each guest gets back $6 = $18 with $2 to a tip jar. Essentially Guests only paid $4 each x 3 = $12 + $2 tip jar money = $14 total. What happened to the $30 bucks?

    Can't be explained
     
    #4 JC91006, Nov 1, 2019
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  5. Raytheeagle

    Raytheeagle Senior Member

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    A lot of moving parts for sure:cool:.

    That’s what the prey on:oops:.

    As long as it is single or double digits, I’m less inclined to worry though (y).
     
    #5 Raytheeagle, Nov 1, 2019
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  6. davecook89t

    davecook89t Senior Member

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    OP, I think what they are saying it is not safe to drive your car with the ABS and Brake lights on. That is certainly my opinion. I believe the best advice we can give you is either A) get a copy of Techstream to find out what sub-codes are associated with the generic codes your braking system ECU is throwing, or B) take it to a Toyota dealer to get a proper diagnosis. If the ABS actuator has indeed failed, that is not something to take lightly.
     
    #6 davecook89t, Nov 1, 2019
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  7. JC91006

    JC91006 Senior Member

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    All riddles and jokes aside, this car is not safe to carry any passengers at the moment. Safety first! You should go and get it checked out.

    Many code readers cannot read all the codes on a Prius, you must have a Prius capable code reader. That will give you a true reading of what's wrong with the car.

    If you're getting codes that point to many different unrelated things, then you should check the health of the 12v battery. If the battery voltage is too low, it'll give you all kinds of strange errors.
     
    #7 JC91006, Nov 1, 2019
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  8. cinsolidarity

    cinsolidarity Junior Member

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    Thanks guys, but i'm not asking if I can drive uber passengers around with brake lights on. Just wondering if I can use it for a few personal errands until Monday when my mechanic is available
     
    #8 cinsolidarity, Nov 2, 2019
  9. 2k1Toaster

    2k1Toaster Brand New Prius Batteries

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    Honestly it sounds like a combination of things. First off, you need a new hybrid battery. You already know this. Reconditioning is useless. You have the best case scenario for a reconditioned battery as your car is READY for long periods of time and for lots of time because you're a taxi. The car loves this, as the battery is constantly being balanced.

    "Issue with computer system" is vague considering how many "computers" are in the Prius. Get the actual codes.

    It sounds like when the mechanic was reading the codes the car was not READY but just IGN-ON and the 12v was flaky. Additionally his scan tool was overpowering communication with the other ECUs. This is completely possible on a CANbus and by design. There seem to be 2 ideologies for scanners. The first is run in the background super low priority. The second is run with a high priority address and block out other traffic. Sounds like the 2nd option is what happened. The car doesn't anticipate a "stranger" on its internal network so this can cause watchdog communication timeouts and then you get errors it couldn't communicate. Which was true at the time. It doesn't know that that is because you have something else hooked up.

    I'd clear the codes you have now with a more compatible reader and start looking into replacing the batteries. Both of them. And know that all the lights can (and will) come on at any time. Most likely right after you've picked up an awesome ride with huge surge pricing and then have them abandon you because your car isn't safe with all the dash lights on.
     
    #9 2k1Toaster, Nov 2, 2019
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